


Maniac Mansion

by bloodyblackrabbit



Category: Satsuriku no Tenshi, angels of death - Fandom
Genre: Horror, RPGHorror, Spinoff, angelsofdeath, aod - Freeform, ongoing, psycological, puzzle, rpgspinoff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-03-14
Packaged: 2019-11-04 09:39:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17896067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bloodyblackrabbit/pseuds/bloodyblackrabbit
Summary: an aod spin-off!  just a fun thing I made for me and my friends. ^_^





	1. PROLOGUE

     Beep. Beep. Beep.

     The incessant beeping of an odd machine was the first thing the small girl heard as the world came back into focus around her.

     She had no idea what it was— all she did know was that it was beeping in a steady, regular rhythm, one that felt oddly soothing to listen to. It lulled her back into the world of the living, slow and steady, gentle as a lover's kiss.

     Beep... beep... beep...

     It wasn't long before the child's eyes began to open, though she shut them again almost immediately. There were two bright fluorescent lights shining directly above her head, and after having her eyes closed for so long, they hurt to look at.

     But that was... odd. She didn't remember having such bright lights in her room...

     ...Come to think of it, she definitely didn't recall having any kind of machine in her room either.

     The child hastily pushed herself up into a sitting position, white blankets flying off of her body as she did so. The beeping noises sped up as she felt her heart begin to pound faster, and now that she was able to see, it immediately became apparent why. The first thing her eyes were drawn to was a large needle embedded in the inside of her elbow, connected to a tube snaking down from a bag of blood suspended on a metal rack nearby. Something else was clamped around her finger, connected by a thick black cord to a monitor of some sort. The screen was blank except for green wavelengths that spiked in time with the beat of the child's heart, which was a little too fast for her liking now.

     So that was where she was. A hospital.

     But... why? She couldn't recall getting sick or injured badly enough to be taken to one. Even looking down at her chest and legs, she didn't seem to be hurt anywhere.

      _There has to be some reason,_ she told herself, trying to fight back panic. _Maybe if I start off from what I do remember. Yeah, that'll work..._

     Her anxiety began to fade a little as she closed her eyes, taking a few calming breaths before she started to rummage around in her brain for any information she could grasp.

      _My name is Alice Bronwynn... I'm twelve years old. I live with my mom and my hamsters, and... and..._

     She paused, furrowing her eyebrows as she tried to concentrate.

      _And I... I came to this hospital because..._

     Nothing. It was as if her mind was refusing to allow her access to the memory of why she'd ended up here, and that was starting to scare her. Was she sick? She didn't remember feeling sick. Had she fainted somewhere? Gotten lost and trampled in a crowd? Was she supposed to have some kind of surgery?

      _That_ idea really scared her. What if she'd just woken up after having an operation preformed on her brain? Had the doctors cut something out that took part of her memory away? Did she have some kind of deadly disease after all?

      _M-My... my name is Alice Bronwynn,_ the girl thought again, desperate to anchor herself in something solid. _M-My name... is..._

     Her small fists curled around the sheets that still remained on the bed. As the muscles in her wrists tensed, a bolt of white-hot pain shot up through her arms, and she immediately loosened her grip with a cry of alarm. What the hell was going on? Why would such a simple action cause her so much pain?

      _Alice... I live with my mother, and... and I..._

     Trembling, Alice raised her arms and turned them out with her palms facing her. Two dark red welts were carved into the skin where her hand ended and her wrists began, the wounds so deep that someone had apparently felt the need to stitch them closed.

     ...Yes, she remembered now.

      _My name is Alice, and I came to this hospital because I wanted to die._


	2. B6 - Chance Meeting

            _...I'm not here by mistake. This is... where I wanted to be._  
           Oddly enough, that realization wasn't as bad as it seemed. For whatever reason, Alice felt comforted by the fact that she had at least ended up somewhere in accordance with her will... even if that reason happened to be something as dark as wanting to die.  
           Slowly, she reached over to the crook of her elbow and removed the IV needle from her skin. A few drops of blood slipped off the end of it with the motion, but for the most part, the tiny hole in her skin seemed to have closed itself over.  
            _How long have I been here?_ Alice wondered, casting her eyes around the room with a slight frown. Everywhere she looked, hollow emptiness stared back at her. Aside from the bed she was in, no furniture graced the tiny room; the only other objects in it were the stand beside her bed with the bloodbags, a silver medical table against the far wall, and a curtain hanging from a bar that wrapped halfway around the bed. _There's... no other patients in here at all, she realized. Not even a security camera for the nurses to keep watch over anyone..._  
            _Creepy._  
           Then again, maybe it was just this room that was uninhabited. She knew hospitals often had several different wings and buildings equipped for dealing with specific types of injuries and illnesses. Maybe she just had to look around a little bit.  
           She pushed herself off the bed, standing up carefully on shaking legs. For a few moments, the world spun around her, and she had to press herself against the wall to remain upright; then, gradually, the vertigo faded, and she was able to see at least somewhat clearly again.  
            _Good enough_ , she told herself, drawing her back away from the wall. _I need to figure out who brought me here._  
           With that goal in mind, the girl headed over to the door at the far end of the room, letting her fingers brush the end of the medical table as she passed it. For some odd reason, its surface gleamed brightly under the fluorescent lights, not sporting a single scratch or chip. In fact, everything in the room looked that way— shiny, polished, and pristine, as though no one but Alice had ever set foot in the room before.  
           "That's weird," she murmured aloud, pausing for a moment to peer at her surroundings more closely. It seemed like everything in the room was brand-new, from the equipment right down to the furniture. She knew for a fact that the hospital closest to her house was old, and though it wasn't run-down, it definitely wasn't this posh. Had her parents asked for her to be taken somewhere else? And if they did, then why—?  
           The sound of something hitting the floor in an irregular rhythm jerked the girl out of her thoughts. After a few seconds, she realized the sounds were footsteps; they seemed to be coming from the hallway outside her room. Part of her wanted to stick her head out of the door and see who it was, but something made her hesitate. She wasn't exactly sure why, but... for some reason, she thought she could hear a faint scraping noise, almost like something sharp was being dragged across the ground.  
            _This is weird, she thought, unconsciously starting to back away from the door. Really, really weird..._  
           The moment Alice's back bumped into the wall and she realized she couldn't back up any further, the door crashed open and hit the wall so violently it was almost flung off its hinges.  
           But that was hardly the most alarming part.  
           Standing in the doorway was the tallest person Alice had ever seen. He towered over her by nearly a foot (which wasn't saying much, given her height) even leaning as he was against the wall.  
           Or... at least, she _assumed_ the stranger was a guy. It was a little hard to tell, given his attire.  
           He was dressed in a smoky black hoodie with a low-hanging v-neck that, on any other person, would expose their chest. But the stranger appeared to be wrapped from head to toe in bandages underneath the hoodie, save for his eyes and mouth, the latter of which was curled into a sinister smile. His eyes were a startling shade of gray that nearly matched the color of the pants he wore, which looked old and worn-out. He was staring directly at Alice with a wicked sort of glee in his expression, and she had a sinking feeling that this man wasn't any kind of doctor.  
           "Well, well, well," the man sneered, obviously taking great pleasure in her terrified expression. "What do we have here? Another lamb bein' led to the slaughter?"  
           Alice could feel her heart start to thud harder against her ribcage as he began to take slow, deliberate strides toward her, his left hand firmly wrapped around the handle of something that looked like a mix between a sledgehammer and an axe. With a jolt of alarm, she realized that must have been what was making the scraping noise; in fact, he seemed to be digging its end deeper into the floor now, as though he knew how much the noise put his quarry on edge. All of Alice's instincts were screaming at her to run as the man got closer to her, but her body wouldn't obey her mind. It felt like she had slipped outside of her own skin and was being forced to watch what was happening without being able to fight back.  
           "Nothing?" He came to a halt about a foot in front of the terrified girl, cocking his head to the side like a confused puppy. "Really? Lame. People usually at least ask me not to kill them whenever I—"  
           "W-Who are you?" Alice finally found her voice, blurting out the question without really meaning to. "Where— where am I? And where are all the patients at? Why am I the only one? A-Aren't there doctors around here? Are you a doctor?" Oh, God. She didn't want that to be true. "Um— or are you a patient?" she asked, trying to push that thought to the back of her mind. "W-Why do you have that weapon with you, and—"  
           "Jesus Christ, will you shut up already?!" The man looked annoyed now, his smile turning into a sharp-toothed scowl. "Okay! I'm sorry for asking you to say something! Quit bein' a smartass!"  
           "I'm _not_ being a smartass!" Alice cried out, her heart pounding so loudly by now that she could barely hear her own voice. "I really don't know where I am, or what's going on! All I know is that I woke up here after I—" She paused suddenly, her eyes flicking up to the man's bandaged face with a hint of trepidation. Should she tell this stranger why she ended up in a hospital bed? How would he react? What if he was a doctor, and he was putting on an act to get her to admit she'd tried to kill herself? Was this all some sort of elaborately twisted plan? What if—  
            _No._  
           She cut her train of thought off dead in its tracks. There was no way the man in front of her was a doctor, now that she thought about it.  
           "After you what?" the stranger asked, his left eye widening a bit as though he was raising an eyebrow. "Now you've got me curious. What exactly didja come here for?"  
           "W-Why do you want to know?" Alice squeaked, fighting hard to keep her composure. "You're— you're not a d-doctor."  
           "You don't know that." The man stabbed the axe end of his weapon into the ground and propped his elbow up on it's handle, a lazy smirk overtaking his expression. "You just woke up here, right? How do you know I'm not supposed to be taking care of 'ya?"  
           "Well, for one thing, that's not a surgical weapon," Alice replied, pointing to the tool he was holding, trying her best to stop her arm from shaking in fear. "And for another... well..."  
           She paused for a moment.  
           Should she really say this?  
           It might get her killed.  
           ...Then again, maybe that wouldn't be so bad.  
           Before she could change her mind or stop herself, Alice crossed her arms and lifted her chin, forcing herself to meet the stranger's eyes.  
           "...No doctor would do such a sloppy job of bandaging themselves up like that."  
           That seemed to be the man's breaking point. The stranger's face morphed into an ugly, rage-filled scowl as he yanked his weapon out of the ground and swung it at her with a surprising amount of force. Alice barely managed to duck and roll out of the way before the blade hit her, springing back to her feet once she was out of his range.  
            _What do I do now?_ she thought, fighting back panic. Sure, she didn't really _want_ to keep on living, but that didn't mean she wanted to be hacked to death with an axe. She'd thought that if she mouthed off to him, the stranger would take a swing directly at her throat, but he hadn't. He'd aimed for her knees, which clearly meant he planned on inflicting some serious pain before he killed her. She'd rather have her death be clean and painless, thanks.  
            _Stop thinking about that!_ Alice flinched and took a few steps back as the man spun around to face her, gray eyes glittering with rage. _Go! Get out of here! RUN!_  
           She jumped to the side as the axe came down again, hurtling towards her in a crushing arc and tearing off the end of her jacket. Gathering all the strength she had in her, she whipped around and bolted out the door and into the hallway beyond it.  
            _Which way do I go?_ She thought, her panicked gaze flicking from right to left as she observed the split in the hall before her. Running to the left led to a bend in the hallway that she couldn't see the other side of, whilst running to the right led to a blue door with a metal bar draped across it like a shed's lock. Should she really risk going left and ending up in a dead end? It _seemed_ like going right would be the wiser choice, but was it really? What if she couldn't lift the bar? What if it had been locked from the other side?  
           "You cheeky little brat!"  
           Alice barely had time to move as she heard the voice sounding out behind her, hearing the swoosh of the axe as it cut through the air towards her body. She managed to mostly dodge the blow, but the blade made contact with the lower part of her arm, slashing her from her elbow down to her wrist. She let out a shriek of pain and frantically clutched at the wound with her good hand, her panic only worsening as she watched dark rivulets of blood stream out from underneath her skin. He'd cut her. He'd _cut_ her. Not killed.  
           He was going to cut her over and over, make her bleed and die as slowly as he pleased.  
           Alice gritted her teeth and spun on her heel, racing down the hall in the direction of the door. It was her best bet, since there was no telling whether or not the left path led anywhere. She could hear the man tearing across the ground after her, could almost _feel_ him breathing down her neck as he began to close the distance between them with long, easy strides. Alice knee she couldn't keep this up much longer. He was much taller than her and could cover more ground with less effort; at this rate, he'd surely catch her before she made it to the door. She had to think of something, and she had to do it fast.  
           But what? _What?!_ She couldn't see any way out of this at all!  
           Alice forced herself to run faster, push her feet harder against the ground, but it didn't seem to do her any good. The world seemed to move at a snail's pace as she continued haring forward, eyes desperately scanning the walls for anything she could use to her advantage. She could hear her pursuer's footsteps thudding ever closer, his movement accompanied by a wicked laughter as he moved.  
           Closer... closer...  
           And then she saw it.  
           There, just before her was a tiny, almost unnoticeable crack in the wall. It looked like something she could easily slip through and hide in, given her size... but it didn't look like anyone much taller than her could fit.  
            _Perfect._  
           At the last possible second, Alice flung herself towards the crack in the wall, every muscle in her body tensed and screaming at her to move faster. Above the roaring of blood in her ears, she could hear the man let out a cry of rage— in the corner of her eye, she saw the axe come down again—  
            _Slice._  
           Alice landed on all fours, rolling over and over deeper into the crack. She expected to feel pain, to look down at herself and see more blood, or even to look up and see that he'd followed her in, but... none of that happened.  
           All she could see was her purse, which had been split in half and was dangling uselessly at her side.  
           He hadn't hit her.  
           Actually... it kind of felt like he didn't even _try_ to hit her. Why would he aim for her side? He clearly wanted to torture her before killing her, and given how much blood she'd already lost, a hit like that could've taken her life.  
           But he hadn't hit her. He'd missed... and it seemed like he had done so on purpose.  
           Trembling, Alice pushed herself onto her knees and lifted her chin to peer out of the crack. Her eyes met the ones of the man that had been chasing her almost instantly. She knew she should've been scared, should've kept running in case he could actually fit in after her, and yet... something about him had changed.  
           He didn't seem murderous at all anymore.  
           Just... _interested._


	3. INTERMISSION 1-1

**Alice** **Bronwynn**

12\. A small girl who has near-crippling anxiety. Wants to die, but only by her own hands; the problem is, she's too scared to do it. Surprisingly, she works faster under pressure, most likely due to her high level of intelligence.

INVENTORY:  
_Stuffed Rabbit • Lighter • Signal Flares (x10)_


	4. B6|| Tag-Team

            _Staring._

           Alice watched the stranger uncomfortably as silence descended upon them, her whole body tensed and ready to run. That was all he was and had been doing for a while now; staring.

           Was he faking her out? Trying to get her to calm down so she'd be easier to catch? Could he fit in the little crevice after all? What if—

           "Hey." The stranger spoke, shattering the silence and cutting off Alice's train of thought. He stabbed the axe end of his weapon into the ground and leaned forward until his head was level with the crack, shoving his hands in his pockets as he squinted at her. "How'd ya know that was there?"

           ... _What?_ Alice frowned. What was he talking about? Did he really think she'd known there would be a place for her to hide down here? She'd never been in this building before in her life!

           Realizing that he was still waiting for an answer, Alice shook her head. "I-I didn't," she stammered, one hand nervously moving up to squeeze her opposite arm. "I— you s-started to chase me, s-so I just picked a direction and r-ran—"

           "Cut the bullshit!" The man's face morphed into a scowl. His shout had terrified Alice into silence; she stared at him, wide-eyed, wishing she'd never opened her mouth. Their gazes locked together in that instant; as dull gray met bright blue, for just a moment, neither one of them could look away. Whatever the man was yelling at her about seemed to have slipped his mind; in fact, as he was staring at her, he almost looked... anamnestic.

           "...Hey, kid. Come out here." The man took a step back and jerked his head towards the newly opened space outside the crack. "I promise I won't hurtcha. But you better do it _fast_ , or I might smash the wall and drag you out of there."

           "A-Are you crazy?!" Alice shrilled, realizing a beat too late that it was a bit of a stupid question. " _No_ ," she squeaked, shaking her head empathically. "Y-You're lying! Y-You just can't g-get me in here, s-so you—"

           In one swift, fluid motion, the man suddenly yanked his weapon out of the ground and thrust it forward into the crevice, spinning it around so the axe blade was inches away from Alice's neck. She fell completely silent once more, her eyes locked on the sharp metal tip.

           He could reach her.

           "If I wanted to hurt you," he said, his voice low and full of meaning, "I would've fucking done it by now."

           ...Well. She supposed he had a bit of a point there, and it didn't seem like she had anywhere else she could go.

           Slowly and awkwardly, Alice began to shuffle out of the crevice. She couldn't use her arms to crawl out, as one of them was in too much pain to put pressure on, and her other hand was acting as a tourniquet for it. So she did the best she could, scooting forward on her knees and trying to ignore the way the chunks of broken brick dug at her skin.

           The man outside the wall wasn't having it. Whether it was because she was moving too slow or because he was afraid she'd bolt as soon as she got the chance was unclear, but the moment Alice came within arm's reach of him, his hand shot out and grabbed her by her wrist. She barely had enough time to cry out in pain before she felt herself being whisked off the ground and was slung over the stranger's shoulder like a bag of trash.

           "You said you wouldn't hurt me!" she cried, her anxiety returning like an onslaught of rushing water. Acting purely on instinct, she began to thrash violently, trying to escape his hold any way she could. "L-Let me go! You _promised_ —"

           "I'm not hurting you!" The man turned his head to look over his shoulder at her, scowling unpleasantly. "And stop kicking me! That HURTS, you dumbfuck!"

           "Y-You hurt my arm!" Alice protested, beginning to tremble violently from the force of her fear. "A-A-And now you're g-gonna take me somewhere to t-t-torture me, and—!"

           The man let out a loud groan of annoyance, drowning out whatever Alice had been trying to say. "If you won't shut the hell up," he snapped, "then I guess I'll have to make ya!"

           And then, before she could even blink—

            _Swoosh. Thwunk._

           Those were the last sounds Alice heard as she felt something heavy make contact with her head and saw her entire world go black.

———————

            _"...Alice. Hey, Alice."_

           Alice was standing in total darkness, broken up only by a single beam of light that shone down directly above her head. She couldn't see any walls or floors, and it barely even felt like her feet were touching solid ground. Everything was just... empty.

            _"Alice."_

           At the sound of her name, the small girl turned around, only to be met with the same emptiness as before. She frowned. That... wasn't possible. Nobody was there, and yet someone was calling her name.

           Someone... familiar...

            _"Alice. Kiddo. You've got to wake up."_

           "Who are you?" Alice whimpered, clutching her hands to her chest as she took a nervous step backwards. "How do you know my n-name? W-What do you mean by 'wake up'? Where am I?"

           The voice didn't grace her questions with an answer. " _Wake up_ ," urged a new voice, this one sounding more urgent. " _Alice. Please, wake up. Don't do this to me..._ ”

           Alice stared wildly around her, but no matter how hard she looked, she just couldn't see anything but unrelenting darkness. The light above her head began to flicker as the voices got louder, seeming to be coming from ten different places at once.

            _"Alice... Alice, my sweet baby! Please wake up!"_

            _"ALICE! WAKE UP! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO US!"_

            _"Alice... oh, Alice... why? Why did you do this to yourself?"_

           And then, finally, came a message from the voice that had started it all;

            _"Don't leave me all alone..."_

            _...! I know that voice!_

           "Wait," Alice cried out, stretching out her hands as if she could catch the dream and hold it in place. "Wait! I don't want to wake up! Come back! Don't leave me!"

            _"Dad!"_

           Alice's eyes flew wide open, the single word coming out of her like a gunshot. Her arm was outstretched in front of her, her fingers curled tightly in the fabric of a familiar black hoodie. Glancing up, she was met with the surprised-looking, heavily-bandaged face of the same man who had been chasing her only moments prior.

           ...And she was touching him.

           And he wasn't freaking out.

           Hesitantly, Alice met his eyes, almost able to see her terrified reflection in them. She didn't want to move too quickly and alarm him, but she also couldn't just sit here and hold on to him.

           ...Could she? His clothing felt warm to the touch, and she was freezing...

            _No! Snap out of it! He was just trying to_ kill _you!_

           Alice quickly withdrew her hand from the stranger's hoodie, feeling absolutely mortified. "I-I-I'm so sorry!" she cried out, bolting upright and into a sitting position as she spoke. "I-I-I didn't know you were t-t-there— oh, I'm so sorry, p-please don't hurt me—!"

           "Hey, woah! Chill out!" The stranger threw his hands up as though she were pointing a loaded gun at him. "I wasn't gonna hurt you! I didn't even know if you were still alive!"

           "Alive...?" Alice tilted her head at him curiously. "Why wouldn't I be?"

           The man snorted. "Seriously?" he scoffed, sounding incredulous. "You really don't know? Your arm was bleeding like Niagara fucking Falls, and you hit your head so damn hard your eyes rolled back into your head! I didn't know if you were gonna wake up from that or not!"

            _My... head...?_ Alice reached a hand up to the back of her head, gingerly feeling around it until her fingers brushed across a decent-sized bump. She winced and immediately pulled her hand back. That was... strange. Her arm she remembered vividly— the hooded maniac had taken a swung at her and sliced it open— but she couldn't recall how she'd injured her head.

            _Think_ , she told herself, closing her eyes in an effort to stay calm. _You got the cut running away from this guy. And then you hid, and he asked you to come out, and he picked you up. He told you to shut up, and then—_

_And then everything went black._

           Alice let out a shrill cry, half-fearful and half-outraged. "You said you wouldn't hurt me!" she yelped, her eyes shooting back open wide. "You— you _promised_ me that you wouldn't hurt me!"

           "Will you chill out?!" The stranger had flinched back a bit at her outburst, but that didn't stop him from snapping. "I _didn't_ hurt you. I just—"

           "You did too!" Alice protested, her panic mounting with each passing second. "And you promised you wouldn't! You lied to me!"

           "Kid." The stranger's voice had gone flat, sounding much more annoyed than angry now.

           "I-I knew I shouldn't have trusted you! Y-Y-You just brought me here to torture me, didn't you?!"

           "Kid—"

           "You're horrible! _Horrible!_ A-At least other murderers have the decency to make it quick when they—"

           "KID!"

           Alice snapped her mouth shut.

           " _Thank_ you!" The man glared at her for a moment before sighing and standing up, dusting off his jacket in a vain attempt to make it look less dirty. "Listen to me and do NOT freak out, alright?" After receiving a tiny nod from Alice, he continued on. "I didn't hurt you. You were flailing around so damn hard that you smacked your head against a doorframe as I was walking under it, and it knocked you clean out."

           "B-But... but you said you were gonna force me to shut up," Alice argued, her voice almost a whisper. "Didn't that mean you were g-gonna knock me out yourself?"

           "What? No! That's gross!" The man recoiled from her bedside as if she'd bitten him, a disgusted look overtaking his expression. "What kind of sick guy would knock out a little fuckin' kid and put her in a bed against her will?!"

           "Then— then what _were_ you gonna do?" Alice asked, deciding to ignore the implications of that sentence. "To shut me up, I mean..."

           The man shrugged. "Use a piece of that shitty purse I slashed as a gag."

            _S-Somehow, that doesn't sound much better..._ Alice smiled a little nervously, deciding to keep that comment to herself. "S-So, um... w-where are we, then?" It was clear that she was trying to change the subject with that question, but her head was pounding too hard for her to think of a more tactful transition. "A-And why aren't you trying to kill me anymore?"

           The stranger abruptly fell silent. He regarded her from narrowed eyes, his hands shoved in his pockets and his mouth twisting into an unpleasant frown. He seemed to be struggling with some sort of inner conflict, and it was a long moment before he answered her.

           "We're in an operating room," he replied shortly. "I brought you in here 'cos it's the only place I know for sure has bandages. You're welcome, by the way," he added, nodding down at her arm.

           Confused, Alice followed his gaze. She hadn't realized it before, but the cut on her arm had been wrapped tightly in cloth bandages, stained just the faintest bit with dark red. She knew her cut hadn't been bleeding too much, but there was no way it would've stopped that quickly. Someone must've changed the bandages a few times for it to get to that point.

            _And there's only one other person I've seen so far..._

           Slowly, she lifted her head to look back up at the stranger. "T... Thank you, um..."

           "...Ryan. Call me Ryan."

           Alice nodded. "Ryan," she whispered. "Um— thank you."

           Ryan seemed to relax his posture a bit at that. "Yeah," he mumbled, turning his head away almost shyly. "No biggie. I didn't want you to die on me." Glancing back at her, he quickly added, "Not yet, anyway."

           "You never did answer that," Alice pointed out, a little puzzled. "Why... why don't you want to kill me yet, Ryan?"

           "Why...?" As if a switch had been flipped, all of Ryan's earlier awkwardness disappeared. He knelt down on one knee next to Alice's bed, his lip curled up in a vaguely intimidating smirk.

           "Because you're gonna help me get out of here."


End file.
